Once upon a Time in Bombay

Shantaram | Director: Bharat Nalluri, Justin Kurzel | Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Fayssal Bazzi, Shubham Saraf | Language: English | Apple TV+

Bombay is changing so fast. There is a lot of money to be made here,” says Karla, the Swiss-American who bewitches our hero, Lin aka Shantaram (Charlie Hunnam). It is 1982, there is hope in the air. Gregory David Roberts’ Lin, on the run from Australian authorities, comes to remake his life in the city of dreams. Straddling the Colaba’s posh Art Deco flats and the fictional Sagarwada’s shanties where he befriends Prabhu (Shubham Saraf), Roberts’ Lin be­gins an incredible double life, which is part fiction, part fact. In Apple TV+’s web series adaptation, Shantaram’s Bombay is shot mostly in Thailand, with almost every na­tionality except Indian, playing Indians. The result is a visual array of stereotypes clearly shot by a second unit—women making rangoli, dhobis washing clothes, the rainwashed Gateway of India, and a restaurant with gamblers, drug dealers and sex workers. Other stereotypes in­clude head-bobbing Indians, the generous poor, the transactional rich, honourable gangsters and dishonourable public ser­vants. Shantaram’s Bombay is where Lin develops a side business as a doctor and gangster. Its where the ghazal mixes with the blues. Bangkok streets are no match for Bombay’s splendid squalor, but the coolest city’s madness is captured in spirit. Bombay’s underbelly has been siren to many squires, and here too it’s the alluring star that rises above the mishandling.

Why watch it: For the seedy, down-at-heel glamour of a city forever on the make

The Sex Lives of Indian Parents

Tripling Season 3 | Director: Neeraj Udhwani | Cast: Sumeet Vyas, Amol Parashar, Maanvi Gagroo | Language: Hindi | Zee5

The film Badhaai Ho added a new sub genre to the family drama and it doesn’t look like its going away. Call it the anti-Baghban move­ment, but this genre delights in seeing parents as self-actualising individuals rather than as long-suffering, self-sacrificial individuals rendered asunder by evil children. Season 3 of Tripling, one of the first shows made in the age of Internet entertainment, back in 2016, tackles just this topic, with Shernaz Patel and Kumud Mishra deciding they’ve had enough of each other after 40 years of marriage and are now consciously uncoupling in the most civil way possible. “You guys will have sex with other people,” says Amol Parashar’s Chitvan, just in case we don’t get the point, even as his siblings Chandan (Sumeet Vyas, also the writer) and Chanchal (Maanvi Gagroo) pull disgusted faces. Mom wants to explore a different life­style and move to Auroville (she seems all set wearing Birkenstocks with socks), while Dad just wants to swipe right on a premium dating service while motorcycling around the world. As for their home, which the siblings see as their inheritance, well, they’ve decided to sell it— shock, horror, because how can parents think of themselves before leaving a little something, or a lot, for their offspring. Another addition to the mildly amusing Great Indian Dysfunctional Family Drama, Tripling could do better.

Why watch it: For Parashar and Patel. Both are so at ease onscreen

Fayssal BazziJustin Kurzel Cast: Charlie HunnamNeeraj UdhwaniShantaramBharat Nalluristreaming businessTripling Season 3